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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23458621">Now</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/burnthiscityxx/pseuds/burnthiscityxx'>burnthiscityxx</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 15:21:53</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,520</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23458621</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/burnthiscityxx/pseuds/burnthiscityxx</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The one where Ricky wants to live in the moment, but life can come at you pretty fast.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Ricky Bowen/Nini Salazar-Roberts</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>90</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Now</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Listen, I started watching this show because I thought it'd be cute and now here I am, FULLY invested.</p>
<p>So here's a one-shot that's a little bit angsty with a lot of fluff, also because I like exploring the whole high school to graduation transition period. :)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ricky Bowen doesn’t remember when he fell in love with Nini Salazar Roberts.</p>
<p>It might have been when they were six years old and she came over to his house with the ukulele she got for Christmas. She had forced him to sit with her on the porch and listen, while she played a song about clouds. Or maybe it was in seventh grade, when he got sick all over her shoes and she didn’t even care. She just pushed back his curls and kissed him on the forehead to make him feel better.</p>
<p>All Ricky really knows is that he loves her now.</p>
<p>“Now” is when he picks her up in the morning and she comes flying out of her house, a half-eaten bagel in her mouth and arms full of sheet music and scripts. She barrels into his car like a hurricane, talking a mile a minute, and stops only for five seconds to kiss him good morning. “Now” is Friday night, writing thank-you cards for every single person who worked on the winter musical. She concentrates so hard on getting everyone’s names right and makes him cross-check everything twice.<br/>
<br/>
“Now” is his life in Salt Lake City, contained, untouched, and glossy.</p><hr/>
<p>When Nini gets her college acceptance to Julliard, he screams and throws his arms around her, lifts her up in the air, because oh my god, <em>Julliard</em>. It’s the dream school for any theater kid, but more importantly, it’s <em>her</em> dream school.<br/>
<br/>
They go out to celebrate – two scoops of mint chocolate chip for him, two scoops of chocolate for her – and sit on the hood of his orange VW Beetle, watching the sun disappear behind the city skyline. He kisses her hair, lacing his fingers through hers, both sticky with ice cream. There’s a stillness up here, away from the reality that waits for them down there.<br/>
<br/>
“Do you think it’ll be hard? Being away from home?” Nini asks, eyes half-lidded, her head on his lap.<br/>
<br/>
“A little. But I think you’re going to love it too much,” he murmurs.<br/>
<br/>
She shifts then, maneuvering herself so that her chin rests against his chest. Her brows are furrowed, worry sketched across her forehead, and Ricky knows there’s something on the tip of her tongue.<br/>
<br/>
“What’s going on in that head of yours?” he asks, running a finger over her cheek, tracing her jawline, committing her to memory, again and again.<br/>
<br/>
“I think it’ll be hard being away from you,” her voice comes out strangled on the last word and Ricky’s heart breaks.<br/>
<br/>
This is when it all starts to change, when people start to drift apart, when time is never enough. He looks out at the city, the houses and the streets they both grew up on, and for a moment, he wants them to run away together. Instead, he wraps his arms around Nini a little tighter, pulls her up to him, so they’re face-level, and kisses her, deep and slow and sure.<br/>
<br/>
“Likewise,” he says. </p><hr/>
<p>A week later, Ricky gets his college acceptance to Berkeley and it feels like the world is swallowing him whole. He’s excited, because it’s California and it’s theater and music, and it’s his dream, but he’s also terrified – it’s a thousand miles away from Julliard.<br/>
<br/>
When he tells her, she hugs him tight and kisses him hard, and he suddenly wants to take it all back – all the crazy pressure he put on himself to get into a good school on the West Coast. He wants to forget it all and just stay here in Salt Lake, with Nini and their big group of theater nerds and his dad and Miss Jenn. He wants to stay in the present, in the now.<br/>
<br/>
But now – things are changing. </p><hr/>
<p>They’re waiting in Mr. Nelson’s English classroom for their group to be called, Ricky sitting on a chair and Nini on his lap, her fingers running through his curls. It’s picture day and everybody’s dressed in their graduation caps and gowns and it’s a little surreal to see. Seb and Carlos are touching up each other’s makeup in the corner, while Big Red and Ashlyn share a pair of earphones, listening to music. He wonders how they got here, all happy and blissful, on the cusp of something greater than what they had ever planned.<br/>
<br/>
“You okay?” Nini murmurs, giving his hair a soft tug.<br/>
<br/>
He looks up at her, loses himself for a few seconds in her brown eyes. “Yeah, I’m good,” he replies. “Just…thinking."<br/>
<br/>
She nods and then they get the signal from Miss Jenn that it’s their turn for pictures. Ricky watches Nini fuss with her hair, apply another coat of lip gloss, and smile wide for the camera and God, she’s so bright it makes his knees weak. </p><hr/>
<p>Graduation day comes and goes in a blur. After that, it’s a week of parties, late-night drives, bonfires, sleepovers, and more 2 a.m. hang sessions at Denny’s. One night, they end up at Kristin Mayors’ house for another “last party” and somehow, Ricky and Nini end up on the swing set in the backyard, watching Carlos and Ashlyn teach Big Red and Seb how to do some complicated dance move. The night is crisp and cool and the stars are out and Salt Lake seems so big and small at the same time.<br/>
<br/>
They’re two weeks out from scattering around the country – Nini, Ashlyn, Carlos, and Seb in New York, Big Red in Denver, and Ricky in California. It’s huge, this chasm that’s about to split them all down the middle, but on nights like tonight, Ricky just wants to forget about what’s coming. He likes it here, now, fingers intertwined with Nini’s, his head resting against the cool chain of the swings.<br/>
<br/>
“I forget how beautiful Salt Lake is, sometimes. I bet you can’t see the stars in New York,” Nini murmurs and Ricky turns to look at her. Her eyes are bright with tears and his whole body aches because she doesn’t deserve to feel this torn apart. He knows she’s struggling with leaving everything behind and if he’s being honest, he’s in the same boat. But Nini is leaving in two weeks and Ricky can’t have her questioning whether or not it’s the right thing to do.<br/>
<br/>
“I bet you could – maybe if you get up high enough,” he replies, squeezing her hand.<br/>
<br/>
Nini shrugs and instinctively, he pulls her towards him, tugging her out of her swing, until she’s standing in between his legs. Her fingers automatically find their place in his hair and he hums softly, familiar with the gesture.<br/>
<br/>
“Hey,” he whispers, catching her attention. She looks down at him and her eyes are bright and Ricky feels his heart twist. “We’re going to be alright, you and me,” Nini nods, taking a deep breath in and then exhaling.<br/>
<br/>
They both turn their heads up to the sky, sending wishes on the brightest stars they can find. </p><hr/>
<p>Two weeks later, Ricky is leaning against the doorframe, watching his girlfriend take one final look at her childhood bedroom. She turns in a circle, slowly, before settling down onto the carpet, bringing her knees to her chest. Nini looks tiny, curled up like this, and for the thousandth time since they both received their acceptances to their dream schools – his heart breaks. He loves her and that’s the end of it.<br/>
<br/>
“This is it,” she murmurs. “Everything’s packed and ready to go. I’m…I’m going to be in New York tomorrow,” she says, almost in disbelief.<br/>
<br/>
Ricky nods, crosses the room to sit next to her. He takes her right hand in his, fidgets with the ring she wears on her thumb, a delicate treble clef. “You’re going to be amazing, I know it,” he declares and he means it with all his heart. Nini sighs, wraps his arms around his waist, and lets her head fall against his chest.<br/>
<br/>
“Just…thank you. For everything. For being so understanding and amazing and just…thank you. I love you,” she mumbles against his shirt, before lifting her head up to kiss him – soft and sweet and perfect. This is the last of it and they commit each other to memory now, his unruly curls, her long eyelashes, the way their hearts beat in time together.<br/>
<br/>
Ricky flashes back to sophomore year, when he was so terrified to say he loved her, and how far they’ve come now. Now, when it feels like the most natural thing in the world – now, when he can’t imagine who he is without her.<br/>
<br/>
“I love you. Always. We’re going to be okay, you and me,” Ricky smiles, pressing another kiss to her forehead. For a moment, they look at each other with stars in their eyes and smiles on their lips.<br/>
<br/>
Because now - is when life officially gets turned upside down.<br/>
<br/>
Now is going to be Facetime calls, flights, and time differences. Now will be all the new people in their lives that won’t know their whole story, new environments and school.<br/>
<br/>
Now is the start of their forever.</p>
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